Almost all modern computers have at least two processors, which are generally referred to as “cores”. Some even have four. Unfortunately, Windows often doesn’t manage your multiple cores very well, so you’re not actually getting the full multi-processor power you paid for.

Ashampoo Core Tuner enables you to use the full power of all your cores. For instant results you just need to select Auto-Optimize to optimize all the programs you are running or Boost to give more power to a single program.

You can also fine-tune individual processes, display a live view of the current workloads of all your processor cores and enhance the overall performance of your system with additional tools.

Sorry Ashampoo; Without benefit of psychic abilities i have to rely on what the 'users' on this site say... (overlooking the morons of course - and they know who they are...) and what they say is...

WOW - i've never been STOPPED, BEFORE i read the FIRST comment... That's right - based SOLELY on the "improvement ideas" alone i'm thumbsing Ashampoo DOWN...

Now i realize that negative critcism can ACTUALLY be the BEST help you can get and i'm slightly reluctant to help you, nevertheless (as a contributing, albeit whining(?) user), here's my BEST advice: Engrave those "improvement ideas" on the wall of your entrance foyer and procede from there...

Unlike similar application that will attempt to reduce the performance of an application to allow other applications to gain more processing priority, this application is designed to do the opposite. Pirority reduction is great if you have a single CPU, but if you have multiple CPUs then it becomes rare that a single application will gate your other applications.

This application is designed to allow those with multiple CPUs to maximize performance on those extra CPUs which are often under utilized.

So, for example, I am programmer and would like to build an application as quickly as possible. In my example, I'm setting my compiler and linker to have a higher priority. My build will speed up because of this. Even if it is just 10% that would be a great benefit.

If you are really into micromanaging your process then technically you could even put your high intensity applications on specific CPUs (let's say 2, 3, 4) and all your regular apps on another (let's say 1).

I don't understand why ANYONE would have ANY reason to complain about using an email address when you can easily get one free and use it for everything like this. I signed up to get an Ashampoo app previously (they do have some interesting ones), and they have a subscription management page that you can log into and stop ALL emails from them. It works, and it only takes about 30 seconds, which is less time than it takes to complain like a fool here. So anyone complaining about receiving emails has the IQ of a potato.

I'm an Ashampoo fan myself. I kept their search page for a very long time because it worked fine - not sure what they get out of the deal but I'm opting to install it again with this deal just for the haters. I read Ashampoo emails before deleting - they don't spam... they send one out every once in awhile - usually the deal doesn't seem that good, but I don't mind the occasional emails and I bought one product for about half off. There is nothing to indicate that they give this email to anyone...

Like the guy above said (albeit explativitingly), go away if you don't like them - Ashampoo kicks down a lot of cool stuff at GOTD

which gave me my confirmation email from their system immediately. Try it for those who are having trouble receiving the email...
Once you do the registration, you must retrieve the link from the email and paste it into your browser (clicking the link didn't work for me).
Then you're instructed to enter your details:

Prefix (Sex), first name, last name, country, date of birth (not an exact age request but within 30-years range), THEN you finally get the code, on screen AND in your email. As others mention, I would NOT recommend giving your REAL email you use every day as you *WILL* be bombed with emails (I made that mistake myself)...
As the registration process, I entered it directly into the program, and saw no mention of a 40-day mentioned that commenter 65 mentions. It accepted it and told me, and I quote, "Valid key confirmed. Thank you for buying the full version, have fun!".

Absolute Con . be wary , when these people get your E-mail address you will get spam nearly every day ' they also hi- jack your tool bar & this program is a 10 day trial , also slows the computer on start up 40% . E-mail for registration key & you get nothing . Big emphasis to con you to buy their upgrade program

There's a free task manager extension called PRIO that will automate assignment of process priority and IO Priority of applications if you keep the Task Manager open (I always do). It also adds a TCP/IP tab, auto UAC elevation and a memory compact (discard) feature.

Apps get all cores by default except if Windows app compatibility sets it otherwise and the Task Manager can store core affinity for the rare app that you need to set manually anyway, so this feature of Core Tuner seems redundant.

installed on a dual core intel XP pro and dual core win 7 64bit.
They say will not sell or spam your email, so I tried to register both installs.
Got message invalid - waited too long after getting keys. - I tried to use keys within 2 minutes of receiving them!!
I got same core tune messages others got. I was able to increase speed by lowering priority of some programs.

I told it not to install toolbar, retain my homepage. When I gave my email to get product key, it changed my homepage and installed toolbar!!!
This is an old version, unable to register, so I get a 10 day trial and then have to buy. NOT my definition of free.
The download leaves me feeling Ashampoo is less than honorable, slippery, and not inclined to purchase their product.

#63 - Mizdoc - Thanks for the suggestion; I found out my AMD tri-core and dual-core cpu's were both set for only 1 cpu, which may explain why the tri was no faster than the dual, so I changed them both. Now maybe they will each do better.

I just finished tested this software and found that managing the cpu cores can not be accomplished only by assigning priorities to tasks or currently running programs without first managing the memory allocations per core.
This software is not aware of the memory size allocated and can not therefore effectively manage the cpu cores.
It is a pseudo core manager by assigning priories only to tasks and has nothing to do with core management.

I do like certain Ashampoo products, but most of them install other extras you didn't want or ask for like toolbars etc. I also don't like how you have to give them your email address for registration - they then use this to spam you to death!

Regarding this specific product, I have an i7 system with 8 cores and when I previously tried this; it didn't make a blind bit of difference!

Pretty useless program, I guess. Windows Task Manager can do that already: call it up (ctrl-shift-esc), go to the Processes tab, right-click a process, choose "Set Affinity..." and select which core the process should run on.

Really, just a 40-day trial? Clicking Internet > Enter Key as instructed takes you to a registration page for 30 days to add on to the initial 10-day trial. If you've ever tried out a previous Ashampoo giveawayoftheday, or any magazine cover giveaways, you have an Ashampoo account, so excavate your e-mail archive for your password.

This program is only truly applicable to XP 32-bit (SP2/SP3 only assigns a program to a particular core once). All 64-bit and newer versions of Windows have multi-core support, though it started off in a basic manner with XP 64-bit, and multi-core scheduling has improved with each Windows iteration.

Version 1.2 only seems to support up to 4 cores (early, poor, limited program design & planning). Of course, the installer tries to install the Conduit toolbar, and you end up on the receiving end of the "King Of Spam".

I thought I would try this with some of the donated community centre XP systems I manage. But I guess not.

This program came handy and just in time! I've been using Anvir Task Manager but it did not solve a problem I had, namely: the Emule I use every 60 seconds eats a lot of CPU and bothers the execution of the 1by1 audio player. And just setting low and high priorities does not solve the problem. But selecting just a CPU for Emule solved it. Thumbs up for the program!

Really don't see the need for this type of software in Windows 7.
All you really need to do is to go to
msconfig/boot/advanced options
and ensure that the correct number of processors is selected.
Simple as that.

After running it, I did not see any improvements at all, actually it slowed down some processes and installed itself on top of the priorities list. What is trying to do is send some programs on multiple cores, however win7 dynamic allocation, stopped it and ignored the request. This is static allocation which only works if Win7 dynamic allocation is disabled.

This software may be used if you have a home server and run only few applications that can be allocated as static memory usage.

If you are on internet 24/7 and run multiple tasks from video, audio, streaming, live cams and so on, using this software will not work at all and even slow down your computer, because for every running application in background, you have to do different set-ups and configurations, which is impossible to achieve.

Hopeful help info + QUESTION Especially to "shegeek72"/Comment 18- would you recommend this program to ie. dual core laptop (HP dv8320us-mine) users running Windows XP (mine is Media Center edition aka Pro)? I believe (and just did) that first updating outdated graphics drivers might help (FIRST.* and Create a Restore Point before installing new vital things*) a lot (Mine is NVIDIA GeForce Go7600-I just went from version 85 to 179 {a 2009 update.} Let graphics driver Site Automatically scan your pcs for proper driver.}. In my case, it's TRUE about Windows not being good about the dual processor issue. just learned I'm only running 1 these days, and I've lost MUCH speed and good performance ...that nothing else so far has remedied. My professional PcTech relative highly recommended I update my nVidia Geforce {at GeForce site). I'll pay attention re: spam during install if I do install this. In the past, Ashampoo has been good to me; another person here says to install it in expert mode to avoid all the spammy add-ons, thus eliminating(?),at least lessening the emails too many people are getting. (from a techy, very longtime pc-er).... Yes, IF I get a Reg.Key- I know what everyone means about that. wondered if this site in particular is more difficult.

I have an access Violation under Win Xp, Quad core, there is an update available but the update wanted new serial numbers and the old numbers are no good. Goes to trial for 10 days and of course the update loads fine. So thanks for nothing ashampoo for old software that is useless to me. If your going to giveaway something the update on the same day should also be available.

Process Lasso was a fairly recent GOTD 'gift' that controls and manages the CPU and processes. Ashampoo CORE TUNER offers to mostly do what Process Lasso does (based on my thorough reading of it specs at the Ashampoo website). For those GOTD folks who were lucky enough to get Lasso, you don't need Core Tuner too.

Process Lasso does its job very effectively. Thanks to Lasso, my PC got a 'subtle' but noticable boost in performance and stability.

I think it unnecessary--and maybe even unwise--to have both software installed. Since Process Lasso works like a champ, I am sticking with Lasso...and saying Thank You but No Thank You to GOTD & Ashampoo for today's GOTD gift!

I would suspect this is like all of the other software from this company - mediocre at best, often crap and always comes with non-ending emails to upgrade or buy their other products. I have downloaded 3 different products from them and all generated huge amounts of email spam from the company. You want this software anyway? No worries. Slip over to guerrilla mail or other similar site, grab a short term address and go for it.

Bought this one loaded it up and bought the new version installed it then uninstalled wasted money, not gonna download this one even the new one did not find all 6 cores whats it gonna do with the new ivy i ordered and yes been getting 4 to 6 emails a week from them i use project lasso it works and win patrol other than that win 7 64 handles them okay

#23 Giovanni - I'm concerned that Minimem tries to access the internet upon startup and there is no way to disable that. What is it trying to do? Yes, its help files are stored on the author's site, but it should not be able to just call home without your express knowledge.

I too, had Version 1 and have upgraded to version 2, when a special upgrade offer came out. One very important feature, that doesn't seem to have been mentioned, is that When you change a processing priority, It is set and remembered. You do not have to change it again, if you like the setting. In this way, I tune my processes and software.

I use it to decrease the priority of some processes, such as slowing down virus scans that slow down everything else, and to increase processing priority for my photo editing programs, such as Sagelight and Lightroom 4, so that they run faster when they are active. If other programs slow down when they are running, it doesn't matter to me:)

As for the grumbling that it isn't version 2, they have listed here an upgrade price of $5.99 which is very reasonable. Try version one and register it. If you like it, try Version 2 under their 30 day trial, if you like it, save 25 cents every day for the 30 days, and you can upgrade it then. Or for the cost of two or three fancy coffees :)

I'm sick and tired of all these giveaways that install services and run on start up. This alone outweighs the benefits.

I have almost every license to Ashampoo products and the only one I use is Advanced Burning Studio.

For those who want to keep this program and are strictly using the English version, you can delete all .htm files in the C:\Program Files (x86)\Ashampoo\Ashampoo Core Tuner directory except for readme_en_us.htm

You can also delete all *.lang files except for those with en-us in the file name in the C:\Program Files (x86)\Ashampoo\Ashampoo Core Tuner\lang directory

You can also delete license-DE.txt and license-EN.txt

Rename gdiplus.dll to gdiplus.dl in the C:\Program Files (x86)\Ashampoo\Ashampoo Core Tuner. Now run Core Tuner and make sure it functions properly. Then you can delete gdiplus.dl

Uninstalled using Revo Pro. You have to manually delete the C:\Program Files (x86)\Ashampoo\Ashampoo Core Tuner after restarting.

I only seem to able to get this to run in WinXP SP3 compatibility mode on Windows 7. If I launch in non-compatibility mode it shows ct.exe running as a process but I don't get the program dialog boxes. Tried re-installing, same issue.

well if a some playing around it seems the only and biggest feature this really gives it lets you asign cores to a single process so I can have for say IE uses core 1, FF use core 2, and chrome uses core 3 or I can have FF use 1 and 3, and chrome would use 2 and 4 just an example.
plus easy management with profiles, but you can pretty much do the same functions this gives without installing it, this just makes it very easy to do.
all the same still decent program, and sorta worth while.

still no email and the page asks for a password that seems to be the registration for the email, is incomplete but don't have a password to register with because it will not send an email till I give the page a password. Vicious cycle in effect for page.

This application is of little use to the average person. I for one will not have anything to do with the developer. I can't get past Ashampoo's thug like marketing practices.. i.e.. Data mining, toolbars and hijacked browser start pages. Actions like this really make them appear sleazy.